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Now... *dozens of countries are engaged in the search for missing jetliner Malaysia Airlines
Flight 3-70... as investigators have significantly widened the scope of the search area.
For this and other international headlines we're following... we turn to our Eunice Kim
standing by at the News Center. Eunice. We hear this search-and-rescue effort
will now focus on an area reaching as far as Kazakhstan...
EK: That's right. A significant shift in the *nature of the investigation... to "suspicious"...
as Malaysian authorities now say that evidence points to someone *deliberately diverting
the plane that fateful Saturday morning. And the focus has shifted to the pilots flying
the Boeing triple-7... given that an on-board communication system and the transponder were
shut off... prior to losing contact with Air Traffic Control.
Malaysian authorities say they are combing through the background checks on all 239 people
on board... including the two pilots, whose homes were searched over the weekend. They
did find a flight simulator at one of the homes, which has been taken in for analysis.
With this pivot, the 25 countries now engaged in the search will have to scan a much wider
suspected route... spanning over 11 countries in Asia, to the north... and vast expanses
of the Indian Ocean to the south. Korea joined the search-and-rescue mission
over the weekend with two military aircraft. This as
Syrian forces have captured the last remaining rebel stronghold along the Lebanese border...
according to the Syrian government. The strategic victory comes as the stronghold
had served as a supply line for the pro-Sunni insurgency.
Reuters reports militants from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front had fought a fierce battle...
as some 14-hundred rebels from the Free Syrian Army and other factions had fled the region
over the past two days. Its resident population of 40-thousand had
earlier fled, many to Lebanon.
More than 100 people have been killed in Nigeria... after Fulani Muslim herders razed three Christian
villages over the weekend. Nigeria's Middle Belt has seen years of competition
for land and water... between Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim herders.
The chief of Chenshyi village said gunmen killed the pastor's wife and children, and
some 50 others in his village alone... adding that another village to the south was set
ablaze. More than 100 were also killed last week...
in similar attacks in nearby Katsina state.
Beginning Monday... Parisians will be limited to driving... on *alternate days... this as
the French capital city has been choking on pollution, almost rivaling that of Beijing.
Paris saw particulate levels hit 180 microgrammes per cubic meter on Friday... more than *double
the safety limit of 80. For five days and running... air pollution
levels have exceeded safety levels, triggering government officials to limit Parisians to
drive only every other day. Free public transport will continue to be
offered, following its introduction last Friday.